Culturable Endophytes of Medicinal Plants and the Genetic Basis for Their Bioactivity

Cultural Endophytic Fungi Associated with <i>Dendrobium Officinale</i>:Identification, Diversity Estimation and their Antimicrobial Potential

“…The endophytic fungal assemblage in D. officinale was a species complex comprising a few frequent and several infrequent genera. The most abundant fungal genus of Fusarium in the present study has always been recognized as one of the highly predominant endophytic inhabitants of other living plants [29][30] , and commonly occurs as a major representative in all species of Dendrobium studied. Its extensive host range implies that Fusarium is a non-host-specific systemic endophyte; it is more likely to be a chance encounter and acts as an opportunistic plant symbiont 31 .…”

Metabolic potential of endophytic bacteria

“…The rich metabolic repertoire of endophytic bacteria is also shown in more than 100 actinobacterial isolates found as endophytes in Australian trees [29] and in more than 300 diverse actinobacterial strains found in the medicinal plant Maytenus austroyunnanensis [8 • ]. Furthermore, cultivation-independent analysis of bacterial endophytes of Chinese medicinal herbs based on the analysis NRPS and PKS gene fragments suggested the production of so far unknown metabolites [28]. Overall, only a tiny fraction of plant-associated Actinobacteria has been described so far representing a promising source of novel secondary metabolites.…”

The microbiome of medicinal plants: diversity and importance for plant growth, quality and health

“…Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), phytotherapeutic knowledge from the Mayans, the aboriginal medicine of Australia, and several other cultures comprise a huge spectrum of natural remedies that can be exploited as sources for new and effective therapeutic agents. Still widely practiced in the modern era, TCM supplies ethnopharmaceutical knowledge on over 5,000 plant species used for the treatment of numerous diseases and has already provided the basis for the discovery of many modern drugs, such as anticancer agents (Miller et al, 2012a,2012b). In general, natural products play a highly considerable role in the drug discovery and development process, as about 26% of the new chemical entities introduced into the market worldwide from 1981 to 2010 were either natural products or those derived directly therefrom, reaching a high of 50% in 2010 (Newman and Cragg, 2012).…”

“…Currently, research continues to show that a significant number of natural products are actually produced by microbes and/or microbial interactions with the host from whence they were isolated (Gunatilaka, 2006), and for several medicinal plants it is presumed that the plant-associated microbiome, especially the complex community of the endomicrobiome, is directly or indirectly involved in the production of bioactive phytochemicals. Presently, however, only a small subset of potential microbial strains could be definitively attributed to phytotherapeutic properties (Strobel and Daisy, 2003; Strobel et al, 2004; Chandra, 2012; Miller et al, 2012a,b), and their relative contribution to the recognized valuable bioactivity of medicinal plants is not clear as of yet.…”

“…Promising antimicrobial activities against human multi-drug-resistant pathogens have been observed for Mexican medicinal plants as well (Jacobo-Salcedo Mdel et al, 2011). As previously discussed for phytotherapeutic properties, the suppression of human pathogens can also be frequently attributed to medicinal plant-associated microbes and their secondary metabolites (Miller et al, 2012b; Mousa and Raizada, 2013). …”